A COUPLE has shared their delight after they found a whopping £62,000 in lost cash by following a tip shared by Martin Lewis.
The latest MoneySavingExpert newsletter is urging Brits to trace old pensions worth potentially tens of thousands of pounds.
Its latest newsletter told readers how there is an estimated £82billion in lost pensions waiting to be claimed.
It also shared an email from one reader named Deborah who managed to uncover a whopping £62,000 in lost pensions.
She said: “I’ve been having a major sort-out recently and among my husband’s paperwork, I found information about a very old pension from 1998 and four addresses ago… before we were even married. He couldn’t remember having it, or if he’d cashed it in at some point.
“We used your advice about tracing a lost pension, and today a letter arrived confirming he has a pension pot of £61,700 that he didn’t know he had! So a big thank you! That will make a big difference to our retirement!”
Millions of workers are now enrolled in workplace pensions automatically through a process called auto-enrolment.
Each time you start a new job you start a new pension, which can leave you with several pots of cash that are easily forgotten about.
Even if you were only in a job for a couple of years, small amounts of money can still add up over time.
The blog told readers that the biggest payouts are usually from old private or company pensions and investments.
The process requires some effort but could be worth it to make sure you are getting all the money you are owed.
The MoneySavingWebsite said contacting ex-employers and digging out old paperwork is the best first step.
Remember this does not refer to your state pension, which every person aged over 66 receives, but instead private pot set up by employers to let you save money for retirement.
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How to track down a lost pension
To start, look through old paperwork or contact the HR department at your old workplace to see if they can help find details of previous workplace pension schemes you might have been enrolled in.
You should have received a letter or email from your employer when you first were enrolled in its pensions scheme.
Pension providers tend to send annual statements by post which you can also use to find any crucial contact details too.
Once you have found all the relevant information you can then contact the pension provider and ask if they have any information about your pension pot and its value.
If you have no luck using this method, it is worth using the Government’s Pension Tracing Service.
How do I consolidate my pension?
IF you have several workplace pensions that you're no longer paying into, you might be better off consolidating them into a single pot.
There are several advantages to this.
The first is that by having your savings all in one place, you’ll only pay one set of fees.
You can also choose which pension provider you want to transfer the different savings to, so you can pick the best one for you.
It also makes it easier to keep track of your money.
You might want to move all your money to whichever of your existing pots has the best fees, or you could move it all to your current employer pension (if you have one).
Alternatively, you may wish to move money to a private pension or use a consolidator service, such as Pension Bee, Aviva, or Wealthify.
Make sure you compare and contrast your options carefully so that you’re picking the best home for your savings.
You’ll need to look at fees but also might want to consider the investment options available.
If any of your pots are over £30,000 you’ll need to get independent financial advice, but even if you have lots of smaller pots you should consider speaking to an independent financial advisor (IFA).
You can use Unbiased or VouchedFor to find a recommended advisor near you.
Also ask whether you’ll be charged a fee to exit your existing provider and to join your new provider, plus whether the age at which you can access your pension is different – for most people this is currently 55, but is set to rise to 57.
You also need to ensure the pension you’re leaving doesn’t come with valuable added perks, or you could lose out.
Stay alert for pension transfer scams as fraudsters often target people transferring their pension with promises of investments that are too good to be true.
The tool has up-to-date contact details for 100,000s of different pension schemes.
The service can be found online and you follow the steps online to get the details of providers to help people track them.
You can also try calling the service on 0800 731 0193 or +44 (0)191 215 4491 if you are calling from outside the UK.
If you’ve tracked down multiple lost pension pots, it can save you money in fees by consolidating them into one.
But beware, by combining the pots into a new scheme, it can mean losing out on benefits from a previous one.
What is pensions auto-enrolment?
HERE's what you need to know about pensions auto-enrolment:
HERE’s what you need to know about pensions auto-enrolment:
What is pension auto-enrolment?
Since October 2012, employers have had to enrol their staff into workplace pension schemes as part of a government initiative to get people to save more for retirement.
When does auto-enrolment apply?
You will be automatically enrolled into your work’s pension scheme if you meet the following criteria:
- You aren’t already in a qualifying workplace scheme.
- You are aged at least 22.
- You are below state pension age.
- You earn more than £10,000 a year
- You work in the UK.
How much do I contribute?
There are minimum contributions that you and your employer must pay.
Your minimum contribution applies to anything you earn over £6,240 up to a limit of £50,270 in the current tax year. This includes overtime and bonus payments.
A minimum of 8% must be paid into the pension, with you contributing 5% and your employer paying at least 3%.
What if I have more than one job?
For people with more than one job, each job is treated separately for automatic enrolment purposes.
Each of your employers will check whether you’re eligible to join their pension scheme. If you are, then you’ll be automatically enrolled in that employer’s workplace pension scheme.
Can I opt out?
You can choose to opt out, but you’ll miss out on the contributions from the government and from your employer. If you do choose to opt out you can opt back in later.
Other ways you might have lost cash
It is not just pension pots which are packed with forgotten money.
Around a million of us have money in forgotten accounts with investment and wealth management firm.
Consumers using the Investment Association’s free Unclaimed Assets Portal (theia.org/unclaimedassets) have reclaimed around £3,000 each.
Meanwhile, around 14million of us have forgotten bank and building society accounts, with a total of £4.5billion in them,
The My Lost Account service can help you trace them. Lost accounts are those that have been untouched for 15 years or where mail has been returned as undeliverable.
Elsewhere, your child trust funds, NS&I and life insurance accounts could also have thousands of unclaimed money within them.
The Sun recently published an article on ways to uncover lost cash – you can read all about it here.